Weighing in very late, I know, but I'd go for what Robert Heinlein once proposed: Anyone who actually wants a political position should be immediately barred from running for it. We should search amongst our communities, find the people who are the most widely admired for their smarts, courage, and humanity, and appoint them to the ballot slots. This thing here in WA is a great example: two twits, neither of whom is exactly inspiring widespread optimism, locked in a tape-loop purgatory of counts/machine recounts/hand recounts, ad nauseum. Most of us are just sick enough of it to take either one as long as they promise to leave us alone for about a month. The whole process has gone terminally sick and needs a major overhaul...which will, of course, NEVER happen...